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World+dog bought 244.9m mobile phones during the final three months of 2005, market watcher Strategy Analytics (SA) said today, adding that the figure is a record one. For the year as a whole, some 810.5m handsets shipped, up 19.1 per cent on 2004's total, 680.5m.

SA reckons shipments will rise 14.8 per cent this year, to 930m units, before shooting past the 1bn mark in 2007.

Nokia retained its world number one ranking and even grew its market share slightly, from 30.5 per cent in 2004 to 32.7 per cent in 2005. Motorola also saw its share of the market rise, from 15.4 per cent to 18 per cent, widening its lead over fierce rival Samsung, which entered 2006 with the same market share it had entered 2005: 12.7 per cent. Motorola experienced a win with its Razr V3 line - the handset family accounted for one of every three Motorola handsets shipped.

Fourth- and fifth-placed LG and Sony Ericsson saw their shares rise slightly, to 6.8 per cent and 6.3 per cent, respectively. In 2004, they had shares of 6.5 per cent and 6.2 per cent. Both shipped more than 50m units in 2005, SA said.

All the remaining vendors experienced a collective decline in shipments, dropping from 28.6 per cent of the market in 2004 to 23.5 per cent in 2005.

The motor for the growth experienced by the industry last year was the effect of the emerging markets, SA's Neil Mawston said. "Booming demand in the Southern Hemisphere, in regions such as India and Africa, drove global mobile phone sales... Emerging markets accounted for one half of total worldwide sales in 2005." ®